Sylla and Apap named McGill athletes of the week

MONTREAL – Mariam Sylla, a native of Guinea and David Apap, who hails from France, are the McGill University athletes of the week, sponsored by Ye Olde Orchard Pub & Grill, for the period ending March 17, 2013.

Sylla, a 6-foot-1 centre with the women’s basketball team who was raised in the village of Conakry, scored 34 points and pulled down 28 rebounds over three games as the Martlets posted a 2-1 record to finish fifth at the CIS Final Eight championship in Regina. McGill opened the tourney with a 68-53 loss to Regina, followed by a 70-52 win over Fraser Valley and a 71-50 victory over Ottawa. Sylla, a 20-year-old pharmacology freshman who was named as CIS rookie of the year on the eve of the tourney, shot an impressive 52 per cent from the field, making 13 of 25 attempted shots, and went 8-for-12 from the free-throw line. She also added seven assists, two blocked shots and a pair of steals. Selected as McGill’s player of the game in the win over Fraser Valley, she was 12th among the tournament scoring leaders and fifth in rebounding.

Apap is a 6-foot-1, 188-pound member of the Redmen ski team who was raised in Gap, located in the French Alps, about 675 km southeast of Paris. He was the top Quebec university finisher on Saturday in a slalom competition at Le Relais ski resort, near Lac Beauport, Que., and finished 23rd in Sunday’s competition. The 25-year-old master’s student in physical therapy completed his two races on Saturday in a combined time of one minute, 53.47 seconds to claim gold for the fifth time in eight races this season. On Sunday, he completed the event with a time of 1:59.53. Apap, a first-year transfer from the Universite de Montreal, is currently tied for first place in the RSEQ circuit with Laval’s Philippe Crête-Belzile. Both racers have 1,000 points with two giant slalom races remaining, at Mont Stoneham, March 22-23. Apap is bidding to become the first McGill male to win the individual championship since Nicolas Zyromski in 2006.

Both athletes will receive a gift certificate from Ye Olde Orchard Pub.